title: Quality improvement in childhood obesity management through the maintenance of certification process.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the Health and Obesity: Prevention and Education (HOPE) Curriculum Project, a web-based clinician education program that promotes appropriate screening, prevention, and management of weight among youth by pediatric practitioners, based on the 2007 Expert Committee recommendations. The project currently provides Maintenance of Certification (MOC) Part 4 credit through the American Board of Pediatrics.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants identified themselves to the HOPE MOC Part 4 program. Enrollees were required to complete all continuing medical education modules (10.5 hours). Knowledge acquisition and self-reported confidence levels related to screening, prevention, and management practices of pediatric obesity were measured using preknowledge and postknowledge questionnaires. Participants were also required to perform a quality improvement project and submit practice performance data from repeated medical chart reviews over time. Knowledge acquisition, self-efficacy, and practice performance data were analyzed using repeated-measures analyses.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The 51 participants demonstrated significant improvements in knowledge acquisition and self-efficacy scores after viewing individual modules. In addition, participants demonstrated significant improvements in measured clinical compliance with recommended practices over time.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Participation in the HOPE MOC Part 4 program appeared to improve knowledge acquisition, self-efficacy, and physician compliance with recommended practice recommendations for the screening, prevention, and management of pediatric obesity. Further data are required to determine whether such practice-based improvements translate into actual reduction in patient weight and/or reduction in health-related costs related to overweight and obesity in youth.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, University of California San Diego and Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, CA. Electronic address: jshuang@ucsd.edu.
authors.forename: Jeannie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Stanford
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chun
authors.forename: Amanpreet
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terrones
mesh_terms: D002568:Certification / Q000592:standards; D002648:Child; D003479:Curriculum; D004502:Education, Medical, Continuing; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D007396:Internship and Residency; D008297:Male; D063766:Pediatric Obesity / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000193:education / Q000592:standards*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012955:Societies, Medical; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: ABP; American Board of Pediatrics; HOPE; Health and Obesity: Prevention and Education; MOC; Maintenance of Certification; QI; Quality improvement